Karnataka lawmakers vote themselves hefty pay hike

Bengaluru: Lawmakers in Karnataka on Monday unanimously approved a bill that revised their salaries and perks by a whopping 50 percent from fiscal 2015-16.

When Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister T.B. Jayachandra moved the bill in the legislative assembly here for increasing salaries and various allowances of the lawmakers, none of the legislators belonging to the ruling Congress or opposition Bharatiya Janata Party and Janata Dak-Secular opposed it.

The bill, which was moved after the budget proposals for 2015-16 were approved, has increased their salary to Rs.25,000 per month from Rs.20,000.

Though the salary hike is only Rs.5,000, cumulative allowances and reimbursements have been increased by a whopping Rs.50,000 per month to Rs.140,000 per month from Rs.90,000.

Phone allowance has gone up by Rs.5,000 to Rs.20,000 per month from Rs.15,000.

Similarly, constituency allowance has been hiked by Rs.25,000 to Rs.40,000 from Rs.15,000 and travel allowance in the constituency by Rs.15,000 to Rs.40,000 from Rs.25,000.

Daily allowance within the state has been doubled to Rs.2,000 per day from Rs.1,000 and to Rs.2,500 per day from Rs.1,500 if outside the state.

The lawmakers will also get hotel allowance of Rs.5,000 per day outside the state hereafter.

Railway travel allowance has been, however, retained at Rs.2 lakh per annum.

Pension for former lawmakers has also been increased by Rs.15,000 to Rs.40,000 per month from Rs.25,000.